


Solace

by everAcclimating



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-31
Updated: 2012-03-31
Packaged: 2017-11-02 19:03:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everAcclimating/pseuds/everAcclimating
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes even Karkat needs a little comfort.</p><p>You know, before everything goes to hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solace

**Author's Note:**

> whenever i write non-humanstuck things i end up staring at them forever and hating it
> 
> so I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE. FOR THIS. THING.
> 
> also i don't actually think it counts as mature so i left it at teen????

With Karkat there's rarely a calm before the storm - the storm is simply always there, never ending, sometimes a simple crack of thunder and others a hurricane.

With everyone stuck together on the fucking rock like this, the stress gets to him more than it does anyone else because he's so _desperate_ to keep everything - everyone - together and in one piece.

It rips him to shreds inside when anything goes wrong and the pain is visible in his face, in the rage he tries to cover the guilt with.

Nepeta, for all her flushed feelings for him and endless enthusiasm, never manages to lift his mood - she tries, more than once, and she isn't a quitter, but it just doesn't work.

They're not compatible, really.

It's not surprising - Karkat isn't wired to be calmed in the ways she can offer and he reacts badly to it.

It's Sollux that calms him, though it shouldn't be his job.

They're not really in the quadrant for it, but in their steadfast 'what the fuck are we doing' situation he does it anyway - Karkat has done the same thing for him more than once, he's just returning the favor.

Once, when Karkat is actually quiet for a moment and looks so dangerously close to shattering completely that he becomes nothing but pitiable, Sollux drags him away.

From everyone, from everything bothering him - it'll still be there later, but hopefully he can forget it for at least a little while.

They end up in the area Karkat has claimed as his own and Sollux forces him down into a pile of relatively clean shirts before settling with him, longlanky limbs and psionics holding him there so he can't squirm away.

Karkat tries to speak, once, but Sollux admonishes him with a tutting 'thut the fuck up kk' and, for once, he complies. Sollux snakes his hands up into Karkat's hair, fingers carding through it and releasing some of the tangles he hadn't bothered with.

The touches are lazy and he's all but humming to himself as he does it, and Karkat is barely, grudgingly beginning to relax when those same fingers brush against the skin around the base of one of his horns.

Karkat stills with a faint accusatory noise in the back of his throat and Sollux just grins - it wasn't accidental and he starts to massage at the bases of both with just the tips of his fingers, forcing out some of the tension in Karkat's shoulders.

And finally, finally, Karkat is relaxing. He mutters something but it doesn't make much sense because he's muffled, but the fact that he's pressing toward Sollux's hands is telling enough.

Karkat, who is terrified of getting close to anyone, is leaning into Sollux's touches.

It's enough to make his grin widen and he continues with the treatment, refusing to stop until Karkat is boneless in the pile.

He settles over him then, a hand on either side of him as he leans down to murmur into his ear a smug, hushed, "better?"

Karkat's lips smashing into his catch him off-guard but he's not really about to complain. He returns the kiss as he feels Karkat's arms coiling around his neck to draw him closer, compliant for the moment as he drops closer to him. His fingers wind their way into Karkat's hair again until he curves them around Karkat's horns proper this time and just keeps touching, intent wholly different this time.

The growl that vibrates its way against his mouth is answer enough that he's doing something right, and Sollux honestly feels rather pleased with himself until without thinking teeth catch Karkat's lip and as soon as Karkat feels blood bead up he yanks away, forgetting that he's not hiding anymore, scrambling back like he's been stung and covering his mouth with his hands like it hides anything.

He's babbling behind his fingers, swearing and part of him must have realized where he is and who he's with but he still looks like a terrified beast that Sollux is going to have to coax back gingerly like he's a gogdamned chirpbeast whisperer.

Fuck that.

He yanks Karkat back against him without bothering to use his hands - more gently than he would have normally, but it still has the intended effect as he holds the now all but flailing Karkat against him - and growls into his ear, punctuating every few words with a nip or scrape of teeth to the skin just below it.

"I don't," the wriggling slows, "give a fuck," stops, "about your," and Karkat quiets, "thtupid fucking," groans instead, "blood color."

He bites down on the lobe of Karkat's ear then and the smaller troll _keens_ and he knows he's won.

This time he drags Karkat closer by the hips with his hands, about to lick the drops of red off his lips when Karkat surges forward of his own accord to kiss him again.

That works out nicely too.


End file.
